Dog-Eared and Dispatched: July 27, 2014

In this week’s rundown of the world of book culture, we take a look at the Man Booker Prize longlist (which is a bit of a sausage fest), as well as briefly summing up some of the issues surrounding net neutrality. What round-up of book news would be complete without mention of Amazon, Hachette, and Apple? Yes, we’ve got those too – as well as lots of footnotes to guide your reading ’round the web. Are you ready? Well, good. Get reading.

Image license via creative commons.

The 2014 longlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced this week. As you will recall, this is the first time that the prize has been open to all English-speaking writers and, in what some are seeing as a bit of a snub, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch is not on the list. Also, although you are supposed to “hashtag-read-women-2014,” the prize selection committee did not get the memo, as the field is predominantly male, with only three female authors in a list of thirteen. If you need to plan your Booker reading, samples from some of the longlist books are available. If you are waiting for the shortlist, that will be revealed on September 9. [The Man Booker Prize, MobyLives!, Galleycat]

It’s that time of year: companies are posting their quarterly figures and Amazon is no exception. Sales are up 23% to $19,340,000,000 ($19.34 billion), but Amazon is still operating at a loss, and its 2014 Q2 losses of $126,000,000 are more substantial than expected as well as being significantly higher than its 2013 Q2 losses of $7,000,000. Why did I put in all those zeroes? Orneriness, mostly, but also because it is easy to forget the scale Amazon (and many other corporations) are operating on when one reads of losses of $126 million or $7 million, or sales of $19.34 billion – these sorts of figures, while easier to read, makes it sound like the companies are operating on a human scale (and they’re not). Enough crankiness, what are some of the reasons for the losses? Well, Amazon is investing heavily in warehouses to prepare for future growth, but many consumers are also choosing to buy less from the online retailer in response to their handling of the Hachette negotiations. Perhaps the Colbert Bump will snowball… [Publishers Weekly, Galleycat, MobyLives!, Galleycat]

FOOTNOTES

In what will come as a shock to no one, Judge Denise Cote is not amused by the Apple price-fixing settlement; in particular, “she found ‘most troubling’ a clause requiring Apple to pay only $70 million if an appeals court reversed her finding that the company is liable for antitrust violations and sent it back to her for further proceedings.”

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